It’s one thing to disagree with President Obama’s executive action on gun violence but it’s quite another to smear him for doing something to keep Americans safe.

On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for his reaction to Obama’s then-upcoming announcement that he would take executive action “to expand background checks, and also to bar more accused domestic abusers from being able to buy guns.”

CHRISTIE: This president is a petulant child. …The American people have rejected his agenda by turning both the House and the Senate over to the Republicans, and going from 21 governors when he came into office, the 31 Republican governors now, now this president wants to act as if he is a king, as if he is a dictator.

The fact is, if he wants to make changes to these laws, go to Congress and convince the Congress that they’re necessary. But this is going to be another illegal executive action which, I’m sure, will be rejected by the courts. And when I become president, will be stricken from executive action, by executive action I will take.

Wallace noted that Christie has “flipped on gun control.”

WALLACE: When you were running for reelection, …you signed ten bills tightening gun restrictions, including banning handgun purchases by people on the terror watch list and the NRA that year when you were running for reelection only gave you a "C." And they say, critics do, and some of them, yes, your rivals, say that you have changed your tune on gun control since you started running for president.

Christie insisted he hasn’t because he signed a bill banning guns for those on the terror watch list. But then he began boasting about his pro-gun stances:

CHRISTIE: As president, I would make sure that terror watch list was actually accurate. But I think most Americans believe if you're on the terror watch list, you shouldn't be able to buy guns.

But I also have vetoed the 50-caliber rifle ban. I’ve also vetoed a statewide ID system. I’ve also vetoed a reduction in the magazine ban, and I’ve also pardoned six different folks so far who have been caught up very unfairly in my view in New Jersey's gun laws.

So, listen, the approach I’m going to take is to protect Second Amendment rights but make sure I make decisions that are in the best interests of the people of New Jersey. I think that's what the people of the United States want. That's the kind of president I’m going to be.

Of course, President Obama thinks his action is in the best interests of the people of the United States and polls show his gun stance reflects what Americans want, too.